NRA Calls for Arms in School

WASHINGTON—The nation's biggest gun-rights lobby called Friday for placing an armed security guard at every school, as it for the first time entered the re-energized public debate over gun laws in the aftermath of last week's school shooting in Connecticut.

Should violent entertainment be curbed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Conn.? Will the NRA's call for armed school security help? Weigh in. Plus, the AR-15 rifle, shooting survival tips & victim tributes.

The NRA calls for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings." Former NRA regional political director and Independent Firearm Owners Association President Richard Feldman joins The News Hub. Photo: Associated Press.

Wayne LaPierre,
executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that "the monsters and the predators of the world" have exploited the fact that most schools are gun-free zones. Other important institutions—such as banks, courts and power plants—are protected with armed security, he said.

The National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun-rights lobby called for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Mr. LaPierre said in a statement to reporters Friday.

Related

The NRA's proposal marked the entry of the powerful lobbying group, with more than four million members, into what so far has been a largely one-sided discussion of gun laws in Washington since a 20-year-old assailant killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as well as his mother and himself.

President Barack Obama has directed his administration to produce a list of policy proposals in response to the shootings, and the White House has already signaled that it is looking at supporting limitations on high-capacity gun magazines and reinstatement of an assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004, among other ideas.

The NRA has long opposed such measures and has sought to punish lawmakers who back them. On Friday, Mr. LaPierre focused not on gun restrictions but on the media, which he said produced violent movies and videogames. He also faulted the national database used in background checks for carrying insufficient information about the mentally ill that might prompt official to bar them from gun purchases. But he offered no specific proposal.

Should violent entertainment be curbed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Conn.? Will the NRA's call for armed school security help? Weigh in. Plus, the AR-15 rifle, shooting survival tips & victim tributes.

Mr. LaPierre said the NRA would create a model school-safety program, including suggestions for the use of armed security at schools, for school design and other security elements. The NRA suggested that such a program could draw on volunteers, such as retired law-enforcement and military personnel, to help provide security.

In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, America's "culture of violence" has once again entered the national discussion. WSJ's Marshall Crook sits with Wendy Bounds to discuss his own experience with violence in movies, games and more, and how his perspective is changing.

A Department of Education survey conducted during the 2009-2010 school year found that 23,200 of the nation's public schools, or 28% of those surveyed, reported already having security officers who carry firearms on campus at least once a week.

Each year, since 1992, less than 2% of all youth homicides occurred at an elementary or high school or as children walked to school, according to a report issued earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.That could include at after-school and weekend activities rather than during school hours. The department surveyed 82,800 of the nation's 98,817 public schools.

The cost of expanding the use of armed security is unclear. According to the Department of Labor, the median salary for a police officer in 2010 was $55,000. Craig Steckler, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, supported the idea of placing police officers at school but said the manpower demands would be high. It would take more than half of his patrol force in Fremont, Calif., to provide security at the city's 43 public and multiple private schools.

How effective an expanded armed-security program might be also isn't certain. Some advocates say assailants may avoid places that they know to be armed. But in the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado, an armed school resource officer exchanged gunfire with one of the teenage gunmen. An after-action report ordered by the Colorado governor said that the exchange forced the two gunmen into the school library, where they then killed 10 students.

Education officials had mixed reactions to the NRA proposal. Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, called the idea "irresponsible and dangerous" and said in a statement that "schools must be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses."

ENLARGE

Dan Domenech,
executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, a professional association that includes local and state school chiefs, said placing armed guards in schools could provide students and teachers a sense of security. "It certainly could help, but it's not the answer to ensuring schools are 100% safe," he said.

In Connecticut, where residents are still in the midst of funerals after last week's shootings, Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, said the NRA comments hit her "like a punch in the stomach."

"My gut reaction was a combination of disappointment and disbelief," she said of the NRA's call for putting armed security in every school. Ms. Niehoff said her focus in the past week has been on considering ways to address mental-health issues in schools.

In Texas, the tiny Harrold Independent School District has allowed employees to have guns on campus for the past five years if they have a permit, have completed training and have received approval from the school board.

Superintendent David Thweatt said schools became a target after a federal weapons ban was implemented in the 1990s, essentially alerting those who would do harm to the fact that everyone is unarmed. "What's caused all this trouble is the fact that we made schools gun-free zones," he said.

At the school in Harrold, an attacker has no way of knowing who might have a weapon, Mr. Thweatt said. "Anonymity is key to our plan," he said. "If they know that we're armed in our school, they're not coming in."

Entertainment industry officials had little comment on Mr. LaPierre's statement that "blood-soaked films," as well as videogames and music videos, had created a more violent culture. The Motion Picture Association of America declined commenting on Mr. LaPierre's criticisms. Several makers of gaming systems declined to comment or referred reporters to the Entertainment Software Association, a trade group, which didn't respond.

The White House didn't respond directly to the NRA's statement Friday. But Mr. Obama released a video online responding to citizens who have petitioned for new gun laws, telling them "we hear you." He said he would do everything in his power as president to advance the effort to reduce gun violence and asked the American people for their help.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.